


this is a nice party

by rxckets



Category: Tennis RPF
Genre: China Open 2017, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 12:31:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12254445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rxckets/pseuds/rxckets
Summary: He had told him a million times that he didn’t have anything going on with Sascha. Because hedidn’t.The looks they shared, sometimes, made him wonder though. The look they were sharing now, made him wonder.





	this is a nice party

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kolarov](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kolarov/gifts).



> "Obviously this is a nice party, so I'm looking forward to [it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoR3U1fsd0U)."

There was nothing Nick wanted more than to just _sleep_.

He hadn’t been up to too much since the Laver Cup, but it had been a long day, and he was still recovering from the jet lag, and the last thing he wanted to do was go to a Players Party.

He found himself there, anyway, Jack practically dragging him there. At least Jack understood where he was coming from; the American didn’t want to be there any more than he did.

Nick stayed by Jack’s side, even did his interview without leaving him. He gave all of the textbook answers. Beijing was pretty, the party was nice. Nothing that he had to think about. He almost smiled when Jack straight-up admitted that he was struggling to stay awake. Almost.

At some point Jack wandered off somewhere else and Nick was alone, standing, gaze flickering here and there as he tried to focus on something other than being tired. At least he had been able to laugh and have some fun with his friend. Now he was literally just standing there for no reason other than to be photographed, to remind everybody that he was there and all.

The thing was finally, _finally_ , almost over when he found himself near Sascha. The two of them were pretty good friends, and even if they maybe hadn’t talked as much lately, they had shared a few moments in Prague. Nick looked over at him, trying to gauge if he was just as bored.

(Probably not. Sascha had always been everything that he hadn’t. He was the good one, the one who liked tennis and liked going to these things and liked everything that a tennis player was supposed to like. Hell, he was number four in the world. He would probably go to whatever the fuck they asked him to.)

Sascha met his gaze, and Nick just stared for a moment before looking away. Then, just like that, it was over, and Nick felt nothing but relief. He couldn’t wait to get to the hotel and get into bed, to just be able to decompress for a bit. He was eagerly walking away, thankful to see all of the cameras being put down, when he felt somebody grabbing the sleeve of his jacket.

Nick stopped walking, turning back with the slightest bit of annoyance. “Sock, I fuckin’ swear—”

His hostility was met with nothing but a mischievous smile.

“Alexander,” Nick corrected himself, offering him a half-assed smile in return. “Do you need something?”

Sascha’s fingers remained curled into his sleeve for a moment too long, and he stepped forward just a little too close. “No. Are you going back to your hotel now?”

He just looked at Sascha for a long moment. Trying to figure out why it mattered. “Been a long day,” he replied with a slight shrug. “Got a problem with it?”

Nick spotted Jack then, heading out himself. Jack simply wiggled his eyebrows at him, and Nick looked away, knowing better than to react. He had told him a million times that he didn’t have anything going on with Sascha. Because he _didn’t_.

The looks they shared, sometimes, made him wonder though. The look they were sharing now, made him wonder.

“Mind if I join you?” Sascha asked, voice dropping to a whisper.

It was more straight-forward than he had expected from him. Nick licked his lips.

“I’m going to bed as soon as I get there,” he said, stepping away from Sascha a half-step, “but that’s your choice.”

Nick started walking out, again, and he didn’t have to look back to know Sascha was following. Luckily, his hotel was practically right next to where the Players Party has took place, so he didn’t have to worry about being seen in a cab with Sascha Zverev or something like that. As if Nick needed another scandal smearing his name.

It was a little bit too easy, really, to pretend Sascha wasn’t there with him as he unlocked his hotel room and stepped in. There was more than enough space to accommodate two people so he decided not to bother him, just taking off his jacket and taking off his shoes. Getting ready for bed, like he had said.

He didn’t stop himself from changing right there, either, just slipping on a t-shirt and a pair of basketball shorts since it seemed he wasn’t going to get any peace anytime soon, anyway.

“Do you need something?” Nick finally asked again.

Sascha was watching him, that much he was aware of. Sascha shrugged slightly, continuing to watch as Nick lied down on the large hotel bed, acting as nonchalant about it as possible.

“You’re tired. You should sleep,” was Sascha’s only response.

“And you shouldn’t?”

“Is that an invitation?”

The question caught Nick off-guard, but he supposed he should have expected it. He didn’t like it, though. Having to try to come to terms with emotions he hadn’t even started to sort through himself.

“I don’t give a fuck what you do,” Nick replied eventually. “I’m going to sleep.”

He and Sascha were friends. They always had been. But Nick was exhausted, way too exhausted to try to say no right then, or to try to explain to Sascha that he just didn’t know yet.

Nick’s eyes were already closed by the time he felt the mattress dip with the weight of another person behind him.

He had shared a bed with Thanasi, before, holding the younger man in his arms when he had been hurt and unable to play. It wasn’t like it was some revolutionary concept to him. But when Sascha’s arms wrapped around him, as loosely as possible, his heart still skipped a beat.

(He hated, a bit, that Sascha was taller than him, that he could do this effectively. Just another thing he had him beat at.)

“Feel better in the morning,” Sascha murmured, and Nick swore his accent was heavier with tiredness. He forced himself not to smile at the thought.

“Mhm.”

This didn’t mean shit, it was all Sascha’s choice to be there, he told himself. Even if he secretly enjoyed it a bit. If Sascha wanted to talk about it later, when Nick was a bit more awake, they could talk about it later. For now, Nick was practically already asleep.

And when he woke up alone in Beijing the next morning, Nick tried to move on from the moment as quickly as it had come. He tried to pretend he wasn’t still thinking about the warmth of the German boy pressed against his back.

(He noticed, later, that the leather jacket he had worn at the Players Party, the one Sascha had clung to so eagerly, was missing. He tried to pretend he wasn’t thinking about that, either.)

**Author's Note:**

> idk man. as always, hmu on tumblr @jacklisowski or drop a comment on here :)


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